Making good celebration choices

From graduation parties to summer vacation, kids celebrate with vigor this time of year. Unfortunately, for too many teenagers, alcohol abuse and drunk driving are also part of their lives.

Alcohol-related fatalities among teens are highest in April, May and June – when parties are common and peer pressure is high.

Though these young drivers constitute only 6.7 percent of the total driving population, they make up 13 percent of the alcohol-involved drivers in fatal crashes, according to AAA. In the last decade, the median Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) value for alcohol-involved drivers was 0.16, meaning that more than half of all alcohol-involved drivers had BACs higher than twice the legal limit in most states.

While drunk driving and deaths resulting from drunk driving have decreased dramatically in the last twenty years, more work remains to be done. Alcohol remains a major threat to the safety of our teenagers. It is estimated that eight young people a day die in alcohol-related crashes.

With summer break just around the corner, teens will be out and about more than ever exercising their freedoms, perhaps a little too zealously. That’s why it’s worthwhile to address the topic of why teens let friends drink and drive.

The work of Penn State University researchers once followed children in Michigan and Pennsylvania from early to middle to late adolescence (fifth through 12th grade).

The research team emphasized that, when teens engage in risky behavior, they typically are with friends who care about each other. If they’re worried about friends, will they intervene or do they think it’s none of their business? As kids get older, willingness to intervene gets harder.

But studies of adults find that people tend to look out for one another more in communities where people feel a sense of social responsibility and mutual give and take — what is known as social capital.

Peer pressure is typically seen as a negative force among teenagers considering whether to drive drunk, use drugs or alcohol, or smoke cigarettes. Prevention programs are aimed at strengthening teen’s individual resolve to resist peer pressure and make healthy choices.

And some programs have shown that peer pressure can be a positive force in kids’ lives. Friends can act as allies when teens are making choices. They can be willing to tell adults or take action to stop friends’ risky behaviors.

Having just attended the first round of school graduations in the county last weekend, I was again reminded of the elation these kids feel on “their day.” They try to make it to as many parties as possible and not all of them have alcohol, but some do.

Making the choice to drink and drive is serious and hopefully there won’t be any fatalities to report in the newspaper this season. Hopefully, friends will intervene and stop risky behavior that could be harmful to themselves or others.

Soon, Hillsdale High School graduates will be facing the same elation. Prom went by without a hitch with peer reinforcements brought about by the SADD organization (Students Against Destructive Decisions). Kids were reminded about the consequences of drinking and driving as the Grimm Reaper visited classrooms.

There’s much to celebrate this time of year, and with the last in our nest to soon graduate high school, we hope the memories will be ones she and her classmates will cherish.Nancy Hastings is a staff writer for the Hillsdale Daily News. She can be reached at nhastings@hillsdale.net.